Jewish Student Beaten in Michigan Hate Crime

A 19-year-old Jewish student at Michigan State University was attacked in what is being described as a violent, anti-Semitic hate crime.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

First Publish: 8/28/2012, 5:33 PM

police (illustrative)

Reuters

A 19-year-old Jewish student at Michigan State University (MSU) was attacked in what is being described as a violent, anti-Semitic hate crime.

Zachary Tennen, a sophomore at MSU, says he was beaten early Sunday morning at an off-campus party.

Just prior to the assault, two men approached Tennen and asked him if he was Jewish. "[T]hey were making Nazi and Hitler symbols and they said they were part of the KKK," Tennen said, according to local reports.

“It’s an awful hate crime, and what he’s gone through emotionally and physically, it’s scary to put it into words,” Zachary’s mother, Tina Tennen, said, according to The Detroit Free Press. “Hopefully the worst is behind us. It’s going to be hopefully not too rough.”

The family has filed a police report with East Lansing Police, but they still don’t know the identities of the two attackers.

“I hope that they get prosecuted, go to jail,” Tina Tennen said. “You hear about it in the news, but I guess it’s something that you think never will happen to you.”